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When it comes to land development, developers are constantly plagued with numerous

project concerns – cost, quality, workmanship, safety, regulatory compliance, environmental liabilities, etc. These concerns, coupled with today’s society demanding for more energy-efficient buildings and infrastructure with smaller ecological impacts, demonstrated the urgent need for building and

construction standards to create a safe and sustainable built environment for the community. All development projects in Malaysia are governed by the local building regulation, the Uniform Building By-laws (UBBL) 1984 (Amendment 2012). While fire safety concepts are stipulated by UBBL, many of the design specifications and guidelines, Code of Practice, fire protection system specifications, performance or fire rating testing methodologies, etc., are detailed in the Codes and Standards. The Malaysian Standards, developed

through SIRIM, are documents that establish engineering or technical requirements for products, practices, methods or operations. From Standards can be in the form of product or system specifications outlines how products/systems shall be manufacture, installed, tested and maintained. Standards also serve as a guide for best industrial practice. Starting January 2019, all Malaysian Standards development will be carried out by Department of Standards Malaysia (Standards Malaysia) under Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.

DO YOUR PROJECTS BENEFIT FROM MALAYSIAN STANDARDS? (PART ONE)Malaysian Standard MS 1183: Fire Safety in the Design, Management and Use of Buildings - Code of Practice.

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BIODATATay Hao-giang is the principal fire consultant of Fire Safety Engineering Sdn Bhd, with over 30 years of experience in fire safety engineering and management. Tay is the Past International President, a Trustee and Board of Directors of The Institution of Fire Engineers and the current Vice President of The Institution of Fire Engineers Malaysia Branch. Tay chairs technical committees that develop series of performance-based Malaysian Standards for the fire safety and prevention industry, and part of the panel CPD lecturers for Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia, The Institution of Architects Malaysia, The Board of Architects Malaysia, The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia and the Institution of Fire Engineers Malaysia.

Mr Tay Hao-Giang, FIFireEB. Sc. (Hons), M.Sc. Fire Safety

Engineering.

Being a developing country, Malaysia also adopts relevant recognised foreign Standards i.e. the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the European Standards (EN), the British Standards (BS), etc., as well as the Industry Standards i.e. the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), UL Standards, FM Approvals and etc.

BUILDING REGULATIONS The UBBL 1984 (Amendment 2012) has been the main legal document for Malaysia’s construction industry, which exercises the power conferred by Section 133 of the Streets, Drainage and Building Act 1974. The building regulation is gazetted by the Parliament and forms the statutory core structure for all commercial and highrise building designs, and approvals within Malaysia. It covers submission of plans for approval, interpretation, space light and ventilation, requirements for structure, construction and fire, as well as all Schedules of the building regulation. Fire safety requirements cover more than 50% of the UBBL 1984 (Amendment 2012), making it, basically, a life safety building regulation. In the UBBL 1984 (Amendment 2012), Part VII and Part VIII are focused on fire requirements including alarms, detections and extinguishment as well as firefighting access. More fire safety requirements are tabled in the Schedules of the UBBL 1984 (Amendment 2012), namely: • 5th and 6th Schedule – provide details on the designation of purpose group and

calculation of unprotected areas; • 7th and 8th Schedule – outline the calculation of occupant loads and capacity of exit

and restriction of spread of flame over surfaces of walls and ceilings; • 9th Schedule – spells out the limits of compartmentations and minimum periods of

The China Central Television (CCTV) hotel tower in Beijing went ablaze in February 2009 during an illegal fireworks display when the building’s

unique zinc alloy skin caught fire and burned, sending flames gradually cascading down the

exterior of the building before igniting the interior. (Source: WiNG via wikipedia.org)

The 2010 Shanghai fire, which destroyed a 28-storey highrise apartment building, was blamed on poor workmanship by

unlicensed welders, lack of safety features and illegal multi-layered subcontracting by the building management.

(Source: nbcnews.com)

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The 79-storey Torch Tower in Dubai, UAE was engulfed in a massive fire in 2015,

and again in 2017. The building’s highly flammable external cladding system was

blamed for both incidents. (Source: nbcnews.com)

Source: frontierfireprotection.com

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fire resistance for elements of structure; and • 10th Schedule - By far the most important as it provides the complete list of

requirements for fire extinguishment alarm system and emergency lighting.

MALAYSIANSTANDARDMS1183:2015-FIRESAFETYINTHEDESIGN,MANAGEMENTANDUSEOFBUILDINGS-CODEOFPRACTICEThe Malaysian Standard MS 1183 is the latest and the only Malaysian Standard that explains the fire safety concept in all its chapters, which is educational in nature. It is user-friendly as it outlines the fundamentals of how things should be carried out and reasons why certain procedures must be followed for fire safety effectiveness. The MS 1183: 2015 is the localised version of the British Standards BS 9999, in replacement of the following older Malaysian Standards on fire safety in design of buildings. It also replaces the following Malaysian Standards that has been cancelled and withdrawn:• MS 1183: Part 2:1993 Code of practice for fire precautions in the design and

construction of buildings - Part 2: Shops;• MS 1183: Part 5:1990, Code of practice for fire precautions in the design and

construction of buildings - Fire-fighting stairways and lifts;• MS 1183: Part 8:1990, Specification for fire precautions in the design and

construction of buildings - Part 8: Code of practice for means of escape for disable people.

GENERALPRINCIPLESOFMALAYSIANSTANDARDMS1183The MS 1183 is the first Malaysian Standard that describes the danger of spread of fire and smoke. By identifying the possible causes, potential sources of fire and the way they are likely to develop, appropriate fire safety measures can then be incorporated into the building designs. The general fire safety information also enlists the fundamentals of the danger of various heat transfer phenomena, types of fire, potential sources of fire and materials mote likely to be involved in a fire, and how fire propagates. For example, it is most unlikely fire will originate from the building structure itself. Most fires are commonly caused by furniture, electrical wirings, appliances or machineries, finished goods stored in warehouses, processing and production plants, etc., with the point of origin located in living rooms, storerooms, bedrooms, kitchen area, factory area, switching rooms, computer rooms, etc. In the event of a fire, unburned smoke particles, together with hot plume of gas and toxic fumes, will rise to the ceiling to form a thermal layer that flows along the room. Smoke layers radiate heat that increases room temperature and when cooled, the layers will descend and filled up the entire enclosure. Meanwhile, combustible materials near the source of fire will ignite, which increases the temperature in the room further. The process of temperature increases in the room aids in fire growth until it reaches ‘flashover’, which develops into a full-scale fire. During the growth stage of a fire, the air expands as the temperature rises, which consequently increases pressure in the room. The higher-pressure smoke and flame will force its way out through any gaps or openings on the walls and ceiling, resulting in the spread of fire to other parts of the building. There are numerous factors affecting the growth stage. When there’s low level of oxygen in the room, it generates a lot of smoke due to incomplete combustion of the fire. However, the gases accumulated will become toxic as more carbon dioxide and other dangerous fumes will be present. On the other hand, should there be a renewed supply of fresh air (when the window is broken), the fire will be fanned up and grow more ferocious. Once combustible products are ignited, they emit hot smoke particles and toxic gases. Convection and radiation also occur rapidly and, because of the extremely high temperature of the gases, other combustible materials and products within the area of the fire will ignite more easily, further accelerating the progress of the fire. It cannot be assumed that the effects of the fire will be confined to the space in which it originates. When fire develops into the late growth stage or full scale, the temperature and the present of smoke and toxic particles will result in untenable environment or occupants, resulting in severe burns or possibility of death due to smoke inhalation and suffocation.

Building owners and developers need to engage a fire engineer

during preliminary design stage to establish fire safety strategy

for potential sources of fire and to mitigate the risks of smoke

and fire propagation to enable save evacuation of all occupants.